This section is from the book "Practical Housekeeping", by Estelle Woods Wilcox. Also available from Amazon: The New Practical Housekeeping.
If papering and painting, or kalsomining are to be done, do the last named first. Wash ceiling that has been smoked by the kerosene lamp, with a strong solution of soda. Fill all cracks in the wall with a cement made of one part water to one part silicate of potash mixed with common whiting. Put it in with a limber case-knife if you have no trowel. In an hour, after it has set, scrape off the rough places, and after kalsomining no trace of the crack will appear. For the wash, take eight pounds whiting and one-fourth pound white glue; cover glue with cold water over night, and heat gradually in the morning until dissolved. Mix whiting with hot water, add the dissolved glue and stir together, adding warm water until about the consistency of thick cream. Use a kalsomine brush, which is finer than a white-wash brush, and leaves the work smoother. Brush in, and finish as you go along. If skim-milk is used instead of water, the glue may be omitted.
Rub with a feather dipped in oil.
Sprinkle about bed a few drops of oil of lavender.
A small bag of sulphur kept in a drawer or cupboard will drive away red ants.
Windows may be kept free from ice and polished by rubbing the glass with a sponge dipped in alcohol.
Sprinkle the floor with hellebore at night. They eat it and are poisoned.
- Label children's hats with the name and place of residence so that, if lost, they may be easily restored.
- When parcels are brought to the house, fold paper and put away in drawer, and roll the string on a ball kept for the purpose.
- It is a great saving to have bars of soap dry. It should be bought by the quantity.
Saturate pails and tubs with glycerine, and they will not shrink.
Boil three or four onions in a pint of water and apply with a soft brush.
Pass a red-hot poker slowly over it, and it will come off easily.
Hard water becomes nearly soft by boiling. A piece of chalk will soften hard spring-water.
Provide on Saturday for Monday, so as not to take up the fire with, cooking, or time in running errands on washing-day.
Cistern-water that has become hard from long standing, can be softened by adding a little borax.
Sprinkle hay with water in which chloride of lime has been mixed, and place on floor.
Dissolve two pounds alum in three quarts water. Apply with a brush while hot to every crevice where vermin harbor.
Dampen a linen rag slightly and go over them gently. If the varnish has become defaced, cover with a thin mastic varnish.
They become very hard by use and no weeds or grass will grow through them.
 
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